Both concern and scrutiny are on the rise, though, in the wake of recent news. The US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration recently mandated that Enbridge provide a comprehensive safety plan before being allowed to restart operations along Line 14, which ruptured in Wisconsin on the very same day that the Canadian NEB approved Enbridge's Line 9A proposal. That day, more than 60,000 gallons of crude oil were released into a field.

And that's nothing compared to the Kalamazoo River spill in 2010, in which an Enbridge pipe carrying diluted bitumen (i.e. tar sands oil) cracked, releasing one million gallons of oil and contaminating 36 miles of river in southwestern Michigan. More than 150 families were relocated; it's cost $700 million to clean up so far; and the river only re-opened to the public this summer.

"Instead of remaining on top of the water, as most conventional crude oil does, the bitumen gradually sank to the river's bottom, where normal cleanup techniques and equipment were of little use," according to an in-depth report from Inside Climate News, a non-profit online news organization. "Meanwhile, the benzene and other chemicals that had been added to liquefy the bitumen evaporated into the air."

Regarding pipeline safety, here's what Enbridge president Al Monaco said in an August 3 statement: "Our goal at Enbridge is — and will continue to be — the prevention of all spills. In 2011 alone we invested about $400 million to ensure the safety and integrity of our system, and that amount is set to increase substantially — to more than $800 million — in 2012. Over the past two years we have doubled the number of staff dedicated to leak detection and pipeline control systems, and substantially strengthened our focus on the tools, technologies and strategies to ensure the fitness of our pipelines."

But when it comes to a 70-year-old pipeline, is that enough? Especially when the pipeline passes Sebago Lake, the source of drinking water for much of Southern Maine?

Last month, the Natural Resources Council of Maine organized a rally at the Raymond boat launch on Sebago Lake to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Kalamazoo spill and to indicate opposition to tar sands oil coming through Maine. Several similar events took place across the state. They highlighted not only the danger of spills, but also the absurdity of using fossil fuels to extract more fossil fuels.

"A lot of people expressed their concern," said Michael McClellan, Raymond's Republican state representative. He was on vacation during the rally but is now looking into the matter.

McClellan was one of 44 Maine state senators and representatives to cosponsor a legislative resultion last year that called on "the president and Congress . . . to support the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline."

It's unclear how many of those elected officials would support a similar project that passed through Maine.

"It was done to shine the light that we need to reduce the cost of home heating oil here in Maine and we need to look at all alternatives," says state senator Jon Courtney, who sponsored the bill and is currently running to oust US Congresswoman Chellie Pingree from her 1st District seat. But, he adds, "anything that came through Maine we'd need to make sure that we first and foremost protect the environment . . . We need to provide low cost energy without sacrificing the environment."

Harvard students push for fossil-fuel divestment Throughout 350.org's Do the Math tour this month, climate-change warrior Bill McKibben has blasted Harvard, his alma mater, for the school's failure to fully divest from South African companies two decades ago.

No tar-sands oil here, please Close to 1500 people from around the Northeast and Canada gathered in downtown Portland on Saturday to protest a potential project that would pipe tar-sands oil from western Canada through New England to Portland Harbor.

A nation hooked on cars The car is at the center of many of our troubles — our addiction to oil, the warming of the planet. Car accidents do incalculable damage.

Generation Green Republicans have a lot to say about the immorality of saddling the next generation with our national debt. But when it comes to leaving them a wrecked, depleted, and rapidly warming planet, they are taking the exact opposite line.

Persian miniatures You can see what is probably the most significant filmmaking right now in Iran by going to YouTube and viewing the artless images of brutality in the streets of Tehran captured by scores of average Iranian citizens armed with cell-phone cameras.

Entering the ring Environmental advocate Jon Hinck, a lawyer and a state representative, is "seriously considering" a run against Republican US Senator Olympia Snowe in 2012, he told the Phoenix this week.

Killing ethanol Estimates vary, but it's safe to say that restaurants, institutions (such as colleges or hospitals), and municipalities waste tons of food every year; last September, a group of students at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor noticed that such waste was happening all around them.

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE | July 24, 2014 When three theater companies, all within a one-hour drive of Portland, choose to present the same Shakespeare play on overlapping dates, you have to wonder what about that particular show resonates with this particular moment.

CHECKING IN: THE NEW GUARD AND THE WRITER'S HOTEL | July 11, 2014 Former Mainer Shanna McNair started The New Guard, an independent, multi-genre literary review, in order to exalt the writer, no matter if that writer was well-established or just starting out.

NO TAR SANDS | July 10, 2014 “People’s feelings are clear...they don’t want to be known as the tar sands capitol of the United States."